The Summerside lawyer’s office on Central Street has been damaged on two separate occasions in just over a month, with the latest incident coming this past weekend.
One of the McLellan, Brennan building’s windows was smashed out completely on Sept. 15, and staff arrived to work Monday morning to find a large crack in a different window.
Still, McLellan doesn’t believe his office is being specifically targeted by vandals.
“I think it’s just random vandalism. We’re not too far from the bars here,” he said.
“We don’t want to be driven out just because of vandalism. Moving is not something we’re considering.”
Summerside police Sgt. Barry Arsenault said officers were called to McLellan, Brennan to survey the damage, which appears to be a pressure crack that broke when someone either stumbled into the window or struck it with a blunt object.
Leads are difficult to come by in cases like these, but police are asking anyone with information to contact the detachment at 432-1201.
McLellan is frustrated by the repeated damage. He said it cost between $600 and $700 to replace the window smashed in the September incident, and expects repairs to be around $400 this time.
The building has been a frequent target for graffiti artists in years past, and McLellan said he’d previously had another window shot out by someone with a pellet gun.
While he doesn’t want to move the firm to another location, McLellan said he thinks City Hall could budget more money for policing in problem areas on weekends.
“I think that they’re probably going to increase their budget and put more (officers) on, particularly around certain areas of the city more prone to violence and vandalism,” he said. “The police department has always done a good job here, but they can only do so much with the budget that they have. Businesses have to operate, and we can’t have this kind of thing continuing.”
Arsenault said scheduling six or seven officers on Friday and Saturday nights is standard practice. He said five officers were on duty last weekend.
sbrun@journalpioneer.com
Why should he, the victim, have to pay for the vandalism of others? His "Lawyer Salary" is irrelevant to the matter at hand. For one thing, he may have security cameras already placed at his firm. Was there any evidence in the article that says he didn't? I find it very ironic and hypocritical that you say not to "point fingers" when you are very judgmental yourself. How tiring it is to see the third parties blame the victims because of jealously or false opinion. What a shame.